PESHAWAR: High installment rate and slow of pace of work on a housing project have left the retired government officers high and dry to fulfil their dream of having a house in the provincial capital.

Provincial Housing Authority launched the project in Hayatabad Township in 2009 to construct high rise residential apartments for retired officers from Grade 17 to Grade 22. Work on the project has been stopped since September 2016 owing to non-availability of funds, according to contractors.

The retired government servants, who had applied for flats and paid Rs50,000 down payment, would have to wait for two years more to get possession of houses. Dr Jamal Yousuf, the secretary of housing department, told Dawn that the ongoing housing scheme was likely to be completed in the next two years.

The government had allocated Rs1.15 billion in Annual Development Programme 2016-17 for the construction of high rise flats. Under the plan, the government would construct 140 high rise flats for retired officers.

Pensioners complain about high instalment rate, slow pace of work on project

Total 55 applicants have been issued allotment letters. The government had purchased land for the housing scheme in Phase V of Hayatabad at a rate of Rs800,000 per Kanal. Provincial Housing Authority is executing the scheme. Sources said that a proposal was under consideration to auction additional flats to generate revenue for the cash starved government.

The retired officers, who had paid down payment, have serious reservations over the slow pace of work on the project and schedule of payment of installments. Total cost of each flat is around Rs9 million. The allottee will have to pay Rs731,187 regularly after every two months.

In addition, penalty of up to two per cent will be charged from the allottee in case of delay in the payment of installments. Interestingly, the allottee will be responsible to arrange installation of utilities, connections of gas, electricity and telephone etc.

Dr Jamal said that schedule of payment of installments for retired officers was unrealistic and unacceptable. He said that directives had been issued to revise the schedule of installments. “The government will revise schedule of installment,” he told Dawn.

The retired officers said that PHA had enhanced cost of the flats and demanded to revise the cost of rates at the time of allotment in 2009. Ahmad Khattak, the president of Retired Officers Housing Society, said that existing cost and schedule of payment of installments were unacceptable to pensioners.

He said that installment rate was very high and a retired officer could not afford it. He said that the government should spread payment of installments over seven years.

“Same rate for ground and upper portions have also drawn criticism as the applicants wanted different rates,” said Mr Khattak. He added that the authority should give priority to existing allottees in selection of ground floor, allocation of blocks and flat numbers.

Published in Dawn, January 9th, 2017